Injured Officer Determined To Return To Patrol Work

William Ludemann Rebuilds Himself After Accident

ENFIELD — As a housing cop in the projects of East Harlem, William Ludemann was shot at by drug dealers and attacked with a meat cleaver.

On Enfield's police force, Ludemann was racing to a burglary call four years ago when he crashed head-on into a utility pole at 60 mph.

Each time, the 6-foot-1 police officer with the build of a tight end walked away with bruises, cuts or no wounds at all.

But the job nearly killed him April 16.

Ludemann was directing traffic around a Route 5 construction site, a seemingly routine assignment on a rainy Monday night. He remembers standing alongside a minivan to give directions, hearing a traffic cone whiz past the back of his head and turning to see where it came from.

All he saw were headlights bearing down on him.

``I thought `What ... ' and that was it. There was no time to move, no time to think `I'm in trouble,' no time. I just felt my bones crunch, that was it,'' Ludemann says.

Investigators say a driver in a diabetic blackout had veered around a cruiser with flashing lights and a row of orange cones before slamming into Ludemann. The car's bumper shattered Ludemann's left shin. The impact hurled him over the roof and onto the pavement. He awoke with his skull cracked and worried firefighters peering into his eyes.

``Billy Moran from Thompsonville Fire was there. I'm down on the street, but I'm saying `What happened to you?' He says `It's not me, it's you -- don't move 'cuz you're all messed up. Life Star is on its way,''' Ludemann recalls.

``That's when I knew physically and mentally I was messed up. They don't send Life Star for nothing.''

Charles Grasso, Ludemann's friend and partner in the traffic division, was one of the first officers at the scene. He believes the impact would have killed a smaller man.

``Did I think Bill would come back to work? That night, I didn't know if he was going to live,'' Grasso says. ``I remember holding traction on him and feeling water on my face -- it was tears. I was crying and I didn't even know it.''

Ludemann spent the next two days in Hartford Hospital's intensive care unit, where doctors worried most about the swelling of his brain. He remembers brief patches of rage and thrashing in his bed, and says the pain went on long after doctors became confident he'd survive.

``The headaches got so bad, I never knew pain like that. They finally gave me morphine -- one shot a day for five days,'' Ludemann says. ``I had no appetite at all, none. I lost 22 pounds in two weeks.''

Sharp sensitivity to light or noise gradually eased, but doctors kept watch for short-term memory loss and other brain-injury symptoms.

Meanwhile, a surgeon installed a titanium rod and screws into his left leg to secure the broken bone. Ludemann was sent home, but couldn't walk for more than three months. Physical therapy gradually put him back on his feet, first with a cast and then briefly with crutches.

Testing determined that two losses were permanent: Nerve damage had destroyed Ludemann's sense of smell and much of his ability to taste. But a team of four doctors -- two psychologists, a neurologist and an orthopedist -- concluded that Ludemann's recovery otherwise had progressed so well that he might get back to light-duty work sometime in the winter.

Ludemann says he wanted nothing else so badly.

He'd scored among the top 500 on the 1986 Nassau County police exam, but lost out when a lawsuit by minority applicants blocked any hiring that year. He persisted through a half-dozen more exams before landing a spot with New York City's housing police in 1991. Two years later, he left to take a job with Enfield's department, where he joined his cousin, Officer John Ludemann.

``There were two days in between and my wife kept telling me `You're a civilian, you're a civilian. I hated that,'' Ludemann, 36, says with a laugh. ``I'm a cop.

``All this summer, I couldn't stand to watch COPS because I wasn't part of police society any more. I tried taking a police radio with me when I drove, but couldn't listen because I wanted to be out there with them.''

Instead he stayed home with his daughters, 7-year-old Erynn and 4-year-old Fallon, while his wife, Laura, worked and took care of him.

In August, he began light workouts at the police headquarters gym, and used protein shakes to rebuild lost muscle. He could stand with full weight on his left leg, even though a limp persisted for months. By early December, he could run a short sidestep.

And on Dec. 14, he went back to work -- restricted to desk duty for now, but eager to get back on the road in his old traffic division job.

``It's been a long haul. Seven months, 28 days -- who's counting?'' he says.

``Coming back before the holidays was the best Christmas present I could get. It's part of my closure. I want to prove physically and mentally I can do it all.''

A medical team from Hartford Hospital and supervisors with the Enfield police force will determine if -- or when -- he returns to full duty.